Act 2 Moment 7 (pg.44-49)
This is the scene where Mrs Birling’s part of the story is revealed and she blabbers about what she
would do to the father of the child Eva had and the plot twist.
Mrs Birling: ‘She had to admit, after I began questioning her, that she had no claim to the name, that
she wasn’t married, and that the story she told at first- about a husband who’d deserted her- was
quite false’
- She didn’t like Eva’s story and believed it was fake
Mrs Birling: ‘I used my influence to have it refused. And in spite of what’s happened to the girl since,
I consider I did my duty’ ‘you have no power to make me change my mind’
- Difference between the Inspector’s duty and Mrs Birling’s duty
Mrs Birling: ‘I’ve done nothing wrong- and you know it’
Inspector: ‘I think you did something terribly wrong’
- She still believes she had done nothing wrong
- Back and forth clashing
Sheila: ‘I’ve imagines it enough already’
- She cares and is sympathetic
Inspector: ‘because she’d been turned out and turned down too many times. This was the end’
- The truth summarized
Birling: ‘Look here, this wasn’t Gerald Croft-’
- Make sure it wasn’t Gerald
Sheila: ‘thank goodness for that! Though I don’t know why I should care now’
- She confirmed she isn’t getting back together with him
Mrs Birling: ‘Go and look for the father of the child. It’s his responsibility’
- Dramatic irony
Inspector: ‘That doesn’t make it any the less yours’
- Not going to let her get away with it
Inspector: ‘she came to you for help, at the time when no woman could have needed it more. She
was here alone, friendless, almost penniless, desperate. She needed not only money but advice,
sympathy, friendliness’ ‘and you slammed the door in her face’
- The conditions of the fallen women at the time
- Makes it sound as horrible as possible
Sheila: ‘mother, I think it was cruel and vile’
- The audience also thinks about it
This is the scene where Mrs Birling’s part of the story is revealed and she blabbers about what she
would do to the father of the child Eva had and the plot twist.
Mrs Birling: ‘She had to admit, after I began questioning her, that she had no claim to the name, that
she wasn’t married, and that the story she told at first- about a husband who’d deserted her- was
quite false’
- She didn’t like Eva’s story and believed it was fake
Mrs Birling: ‘I used my influence to have it refused. And in spite of what’s happened to the girl since,
I consider I did my duty’ ‘you have no power to make me change my mind’
- Difference between the Inspector’s duty and Mrs Birling’s duty
Mrs Birling: ‘I’ve done nothing wrong- and you know it’
Inspector: ‘I think you did something terribly wrong’
- She still believes she had done nothing wrong
- Back and forth clashing
Sheila: ‘I’ve imagines it enough already’
- She cares and is sympathetic
Inspector: ‘because she’d been turned out and turned down too many times. This was the end’
- The truth summarized
Birling: ‘Look here, this wasn’t Gerald Croft-’
- Make sure it wasn’t Gerald
Sheila: ‘thank goodness for that! Though I don’t know why I should care now’
- She confirmed she isn’t getting back together with him
Mrs Birling: ‘Go and look for the father of the child. It’s his responsibility’
- Dramatic irony
Inspector: ‘That doesn’t make it any the less yours’
- Not going to let her get away with it
Inspector: ‘she came to you for help, at the time when no woman could have needed it more. She
was here alone, friendless, almost penniless, desperate. She needed not only money but advice,
sympathy, friendliness’ ‘and you slammed the door in her face’
- The conditions of the fallen women at the time
- Makes it sound as horrible as possible
Sheila: ‘mother, I think it was cruel and vile’
- The audience also thinks about it
